High-pitched shrieks resounded inside the Arlington Theatre on Sunday night a half-hour before the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Virtuosos Awards were set to begin.
The projected video feed of arrivals turned pink as Ariana Grande worked the red carpet in a sparkling, cotton-candy-colored gown.
The popstar star of “Wicked,” a nominee for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her first leading role in a film, was among eight actors honored for their “breakout” moments in films released last year.
The evening’s film clips and interviews revealed insights, thanks to deft handling by host Dave Karger who displayed the knowledge of an insider and the enthusiasm of a true fan.
His first question to Grande: “Did you always dream of an Oscar nomination?”
“I wouldn’t let my mind go so far,” she said. “It was the dream of my life to play Glinda in ‘Wicked.’ An award was not in the realm of possibilities.”
“I love you!” screamed a fan from the sold-out audience. “I love you too,” she immediately replied. Grande then dug into her character’s psyche.
“Wanting to be liked is so important to her, that external validation,” she said. “Though she is full of light and a comedic character, she has a human heartbeat. I got to feel her pain and her humanness.”
Fellow pop star and first-time Oscar nominee, Selena Gomez also elicited fan fervor.
In the Spanish-language, musical film “Emilia Pérez,” she is a woman whose cartel boss husband wishes to transition to a woman.
“I feel ready to tackle more and want to focus on film for a while,” she said. “It will be hard to get back to music after this.”
Loud groans and shouts of “no” came from the audience.
This year, she received her first Oscar nomination (“Emilia Pérez”), first lead actress Emmy nod (“Only Murders in the Building”), and double Golden Globe acting nominations (one for each), among other honors.
In “Sing Sing,” former prisoner Clarence Maclin, aka “Divine Eye,” portrays a character inspired by his own life, following the impact of a prison arts program on an inmate who is wrongfully incarcerated. Maclin is among the film’s four writers nominated for a screenwriting Oscar.
“Some people say I played myself, but I played ‘Hamlet’ too. I don’t know if you missed that,” he said referring to the film clip that showcased his powerful take on “To be or not to be…”
Smiling and vivacious, he turned serious when talking about returning to prison to shoot the film.
“It was hard going back to a place I clawed my way out of,” he said. “But people in prison are just people, they can change and grow. I wanted them to know that this can happen. There’s a big world out there.”
Fernanda Torres stars in “I’m Still Here” which features characters introduced in Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles’ 1998 film “Central Station.”
That film starred Torres’ mother,
Fernanda Montenegro. Twenty-five years later, Salles cast them as daughter and mother in “I’m Still Here.”
Torres won the Golden Globe and is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of an activist who investigates her husband’s disappearance during the 1964 Brazilian dictatorship.
“It’s such a miracle to share this success with my mother,” she said. “What a great year for women in cinema, especially for women over 40 and even over 50.”
She is thrilled with the nominations but seemed more excited about a rare honor in her home country. “I am being made into a costume for Carnival in Brazil, which is held at the same time as the Oscars,” she said, beaming.
Fellow Best Actress nominee Mikey Madison was introduced in a clip from “Anora” in which she screamed incessantly.
“That scene took eight days to shoot, but I have some experience in screaming,” joked Madison, who also appeared in 2022’s “Scream V.”
There was no script when “Anora” director Sean Baker cast her as an American sex worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. (The screaming comes during a confrontation with the father.)
“Sean said, ‘I’ll write it for you,’ and we collaborated throughout the process,” she said. “But he didn’t hear the Brooklyn accent until the first day of shooting.”
In the two days before her Santa Barbara appearance, “Anora” won the Directors Guild,
Producers Guild, and Critics Choice awards, all indicators of an Oscar sweep. It has six
nominations, including Best Picture.
In “September 5,” John Magaro plays real-life sports producer Geoffrey Mason a newcomer who leads ABC’s live coverage during the 22-hour Munich Olympics hostage crisis.
Host Karger asked if Magaro ever felt like “the new guy.”
“Every day of my life,” quipped Magaro.
The character actor revealed that he spent two months shadowing sports producers to learn how to “call” live games, such as giving cues to switch camera angles, roll tape, and other elements.
“The people in that control room were laser-focused on getting it on the air,” he said. “I had met (Mason) and felt I had to get it right.”
Monica Barbaro was “excited and intimidated” to portray iconic folk singer and activist Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” She’s received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for the role.
“I’m not a singer and didn’t play the guitar,” she said, getting a laugh from the audience.
“I didn’t want to do an imitation or a caricature, and it’s impossible to get her vocal quality,” she added. “I had to let go and embody her essence.”
On working with co-star Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, she said, “We met a week before shooting started, in a musical rehearsal. They also met through the music scene. We kept our relationship like theirs, siloed when they met, then a collaboration.”
Sebastian Stan also portrays a real-life character, a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” which recounts the current President’s early days under the tutelage of cutthroat attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Both Stan and Strong received Oscar nominations for their roles.
Stan also had rare double Golden Globe nominations, for Best Actor – Drama (“The
Apprentice”) and Best Actor – Comedy (“A Different Man”), which he won.
He is perhaps best known as Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier in the Marvel films.
“It was like learning an instrument,” he says of capturing Trump’s demeanor. “It took a lot of practice. He doesn’t breathe and his lips roll around consonants. I thought about his posture and that stare, why are they that way? Then it hit me: it’s from Clint Eastwood movies.”
More Photos from the Virtuosos Awards and Red Carpet:
